Saturday, January 14, 2017

Anyone who knows me knows that my love of Cacti is pretty strong. I love drawing them, I have made books and stories based on cacti and cacti-like animals (anyone want a hedge-hug? heh, moving on), and-- I'm posting since I wanted to share with the world some art samples from the newest accordion book/zine I'm working on, which is botanical illustration and cacti- based. I'm doing a ton of these illos and getting this printed at the end of next month. w00t!

In the past, I've always used super bright colors, Prismacolor, and Winsor Newton or Copic Markers to do my botanical illustrations-- but this new project is totally different. While I'm using Watercolor, I'm calling it the "Cact-tea" (ba dum bum ching) collection," as all these Cacti I'm drawing also are using natural materials. In there, I've used espresso, beet, tumeric, and of course, Chai, Matcha, and other teas.

Can you guess which pigments of these were natural, which were paint, and which natural pigment produced which color? Below, please scroll down to see my Red-Top Cactus, Succulent, and Echeverias. I'll spoil the one above-- it's a Queen Victoria Agave, done with watercolor and espresso.

Hello There! About Me

Here's my blog! When I've the time, I post here. Sometimes writing and random thoughts, but mostly with updates on projects, art fairs, and submissions to the many cool art challenges online.
I'm a New Yorker, who loves London, who lives in Los Angeles. Otherwise, I am an artist, illustrator, and freelance writer who is also a "cardtoonist." Which means, I create handmade cartoon cards- and often caption them with puns inside. I also do sequential work and contributed a story to the "Samurai Graphic Novel" anthology, released in early 2011, with info here: http://tinyurl.com/samuraigraphicnovel.
Please say hello! donna.v.letterese@gmail.com